Long-term Espoo City Councillor and Chair of the City Planning Board Markku Markkula has received the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) highest honorary medal – the Leonardo da Vinci award – for his internationally significant contribution to engineering education.

The Leonardo da Vinci medal has been awarded since 1983 and its first recipient was the later President of the European Commission Jacques Delors. Markkula is the second Finn to receive the award after academic professor Teuvo Kohonen, a pioneer in researching neural networks and self-organising maps.

Markkula's achievements were seen to be in his decades-long work both within universities as well as in international and domestic politics. He is known especially for pioneering and preaching life-long learning and innovations.

"I have marketed the role of Espoo as a renewer in hundreds of presentations and speeches. Already in the early 1990s we had the theme of "Espoo Learning City" and for the past years we have promoted "Espoo Innovation Garden. These themes are now in the spotlight every week when I lead the EU Committee of the Regions and negotiate the needed renewals with Commissioners and high officials", Markkula stated.

"We have to let go of the mindset that after we graduate from school we have all the knowledge and skills we need for the rest of our lives. Society and business develop all the time – therefore also education needs to have the courage to renew itself and all of us should become pioneers to develop ourselves as passionate learners. I am very happy and honoured to be among the former esteemed winners" Markkula concluded at the ceremony.